With You
by purple-fiddle
Summary: In order to escape the cat's fate, Kakeru steals Kyou out of Japan. A lifetime later, they're on their way back...if Kakeru gets his way that is.


Summary: In order to escape the cat's fate, Kakeru steals Kyou out of Japan. A lifetime later, they're on their way back.

Author's notes: I've been fussing with this story for awhile now and I can't seem to figure out where I want it to go. So, I'm leaving as is and posting it because I don't think I'll get any further on it. I will however, still be doing a Kakeru and Kyou leave Japan end up elsewhere, have to go back or some such story for them. I think it's a fabulous idea. The way it's done here is just not working out.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

**With You**

Kyou can still remember the bone deep shock he felt when Kakeru grabbed his wrist and screamed "RUN!!" for the very first time.

It had been right after his mother's funeral and he had moved into Shishou's house. He had been playing quietly by himself near the house when a dark haired boy about his age had come over and asked if he wanted to play. Surprised, Kyou had reluctantly agreed. When a couple of even younger girls came over to join their play, Kyou had panicked. His new friend, not knowing the reason for Kyou's fear, had just grinned, grabbed his wrist and tugged him away, running, screaming his head off.

That aspect of their relationship had remained essentially unchanged for the past twenty years. Wherever Kakeru lead, Kyou would follow.

* * *

Kyou stood at the sink, slowly washing the dishes. Each dish was methodically cleaned and rinsed before being put in away in rack next t him. One into the rack, one into his hands. Again and again and again until there was nothing left.

After, he just stood by the sink blankly staring out the window, hands in the water feeling it drain. Kakeru had not made it home yet. It wasn't the first of their fights but it had been their worst. They'd probably scared the hell out of their neighbors the screaming had been so loud.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go to Japan again, it was that he was afraid of running into everyone and everything that he had been trying so hard to avoid for the past decade. However much good he had found there in the last few years had never been enough to erase all of the bad of the years before. What was the point of running away if all he was going to do in the end was run right back into the fray?

He could feel the sun's warmth on his face, descending past the window above the sink like it always did this time of year. He could imagine how the bright colors would painted on the clouds hanging the sky, the light of the dying sun glowing through the branches and highlighting the leaves. A beautiful mix of orange and red.

"_Kyou's colors..." Whispered sadly while clutching at his hand. He could smell it, the antiseptic and air conditioning of the hospital, could taste it on his tongue, but..._

Kyou shook himself out of his memory. There was no point in being sad about something he couldn't change. Akito had been the one to teach him that, of all people. And Yuki, too. He had never been able to fight his way out of the cage waiting for him; in time he had learned to accept it and with that acceptance came peace. He wondered if that is what Shishou's grandfather had felt when the treat had been refused by his grandson.

Kakeru hadn't accepted it, however. It wasn't in his personality to accept with any sort of finality to these kinds of things. If there was a chance, no matter how small, he would take it. To not do so would be the antithesis of everything Kakeru was.

That had ultimately been what their argument was about. Not really about leaving their small house with the west facing window in the kitchen and the hardwood floors throughout. Not about leaving their new home and their new friends and their new jobs. Nor even about possibly meeting people that he hoped to never see again. It had really been about Kyou's willingness to accept his new circumstance against Kakeru's inability to accept that this was the way their lives were going to be from now on.

Whether Kakeru had realized that this was was what the argument had really been about was another matter. He had always been a little simplistic in that regard, but it was just another reason for Kyou to love him.

Once the sink had finished draining and the sun had set, Kyou turned to go up the stairs, hands out brushing the furniture and walls as he passed, feet sliding forward with every step as not to step on something sharp. Careful, oh so careful, learned after many hard days of tripping over everything, running into everything, breaking things he just couldn't _see_. The doctor assured him that all it would take was time and practice, but though he practiced constantly, it didn't seem to be getting any easier.

He never realized how hard it would be, how physically _exhausting_, to not be able to see where he was going. He had never wanted to learn, really, but here he was. Learning all over again how to walk without falling down.

As he shuffled towards the stairs, the front door opened quietly, with a barely there click. The squeak in the door was the last thing that he had managed to fix before the accident. Now those kinds of repairs would be up to Kakeru. He shuddered at the thought just as Kakeru stepped through the door and closing it behind him with a muffled thump.

For a moment they just stood there, Kyou with his left hand on the railing of the stairs the other out in front of him slightly in case furniture moved again (it seemed to be happening a lot these days...), Kakeru by the door.

Kyou could imagine him leaning back against it, arms crossed, eyes thoughtful. He could see in his head Kakeru's dark hair, made even messier by the wind during his walk, dark eyes contemplating him seriously, a slight moue of disappointment on his face. He could even guess what his next question would be.

"Where's your cane?" Yup, right on target. He grinned slightly.

"I don't know. I put it down somewhere and seem to have lost it." A sigh, along with two dull thumps as Kakeru toed off his shoes and kicked them carefully to the side. Slight movement that he could hear and feel, the smell of him coming closer. Kakeru stopped, but Kyou stepped into his space, his head dropping down onto Kakeru's shoulder, feeling Kakeru's arms coming around him, his own sliding around Kakeru's waist. Kyou breathed him in and listened to his heartbeat.

Another sigh from Kakeru, before he said, "I think we should get one of those key locater thingies for it, since you "lose" it so much, Kyon." Kyou chuckled.

"Maybe, but I don't really need it when I'm home. I can get around here just fine." Kakeru snorted.

"Yeah, _now_."

"Now is all that matters, Nabe." A hint of warning in his voice. Kakeru's arms tightened around him and Kyou sighed, leaning more fully on him.

"Let's just go to bed. It's been a long day."

"Shouldn't we make up before we go to bed? It's what all those girl magazines say."

"...do you _want_ to sleep on the couch?"

"Awww..."


End file.
